


News

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2019-03-21 18:15:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13746567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: Louisa finally tells Alex about the state that Anne is in.





	News

When Louisa returned from Pandoria, Alex’s first instinct had been to ask her about Anne. But then Darko had arrived, and Fripp had been injured trying to protect them all from the Dark Rider, and there just hadn’t been any time. Louisa had slipped away after the chaos, and Alex had let her go. She’d just been through a terrifying race for her life, the last thing that she needed was some lovesick fool asking after the fate of the girl who was imprisoned there. No matter how much Alex wanted to know about Anne’s state. 

But Louisa had been acting strangely ever since her time in Pandoria, even after a few weeks had passed. After training her horses, which she did far more often these days, Louisa always went straight into her stable or Herman’s house and hid away there for the rest of the day. Not that there were any meetings to go to or anything, but still…

“Hey, what’s up with your girlfriend?” Alex asked Lisa, catching the musician on her way to a jam session with Zedd in Jarlaheim. Lisa stopped, turning to look at her friend.

“Louisa? She’s fine,” said Lisa, frowning. 

“Really?” asked Alex, frowning too now. “Pandoria didn’t mess her up too badly or anything? Fripp said she’d be fine because she had Goldmist with her.”

“No, she was a bit off for a few days but she’s fine now,” said Lisa, shrugging. “Why?”

“Because I haven’t seen her since then,” said Alex. “Normally we chat a bit, we even train together sometimes, but lately…”

“Oh, crap,” Lisa muttered. She sighed. “She… found something in there that shook her a bit.”

“What?” asked Alex, worry chilling her earlier concern. A deep pit of fear began to form in her gut. “What did she find?”

“It’s better if you go and ask her yourself,” said Lisa. “Just go easy on her, okay? I know she has her friends to fall back on, but I know that I’ll have to comfort her later on.”

“Gee, now I’m nervous,” said Alex with a shaky chuckle. She wiped her hands on her trousers. 

“No, no, it’s not that!” said Lisa, holding her hands up.

“Then what is it?” asked Alex, folding her arms across her chest.

“Go and ask her,” said Lisa. “It’s better to hear it coming from her.”

“Okay,” said Alex, shrugging. “I’ll ask.”

“She should be just getting back from her ride now,” said Lisa. Alex nodded and walked away, following the path towards Jorvik Stables. Lisa got out her phone, her thumb hovering over Louisa’s name. Then, with a sigh, she closed her eyes and put her phone away. “Sorry, Louisa.”

Louisa felt herself relax as she dismounted her current horse and stretched, her back and joints making awful cracking noises.

“That sounds wonderful,” said Goldmist, pinning his ears back slightly as he watched her from the stall directly across from the door. Louisa finished her stretch with a grunt.

“It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it,” said Louisa.

“Not to mention the fact that it keeps you away from me,” said a voice from behind her. Louisa froze, the voice sending chills down her spine. The worst part was that it was true. Louisa closed her eyes for a moment.

“She’s not going to disappear if you close your eyes,” said Goldmist. “Time to face the music, my dear.” Louisa sighed and turned around to find Alex standing there with her hand on the withers of Classygirl, the dun Icelandic that Louisa was currently training.

“Busted, I guess,” said Louisa, shoving her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. She chewed on her bottom lip.

“I never got the chance to ask you before,” said Alex. “What with Darko and Fripp and everything. How was Pandoria?” She stroked the horse as she spoke.

“It was… pink,” said Louisa. “With flying manta rays and Shadow Seekers, and enough tentacles for a hentai movie.” Alex nodded.

“Alright, I’m just gonna come out and ask,” said Alex, looking her straight in the eyes. “Did you find Anne?”

“Yes,” said Louisa, closing her eyes. Her voice was a whisper, and she looked like she was bracing herself for a blow.

“So why didn’t you bring her home?” asked Alex, her voice fraying. “You know I need her.”

“Because she’s trapped in a crystal!” Louisa blurted out, tears leaking from her tightly-shut eyes. “And the way she spoke to me, she just… sounded so sad. Like she’d given up.” She opened her eyes to find Alex staring at her, her hand very still on the horse. Alex looked down, clearly mulling over the words. Louisa trembled, waiting for Alex to respond. This was the part in TV shows or movies where she’d tell Alex to say something, anything. But the truth was that Louisa was absolutely terrified of Alex’s response and had been for some time now.

“Then it looks like I’ll need to borrow your pick-axe,” said Alex, determination sparking in her gaze when she looked back up at Louisa.

“But that’s not all, she looked… bad,” said Louisa. “She’s got pink veins through her skin, and pink streaks in her hair, and her eyes are bright pink. It must be that Pandorian sickness that Fripp was warning us about.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” said Alex, pushing open the stable doors and striding outside to where Tin Can waited in the paddock.

“But we can’t go back there, Alex,” said Louisa, following after her. “Fripp destroyed the keystone.”

“Then we’ll just have to find or make another door, won’t we?” said Alex, grinning.

“But isn’t it too dangerous to just open portals right now?” asked Louisa. Alex rolled her eyes.

“Fripp had you and Linda portal to Dino Valley just to save, like, five minutes of travel time,” said Alex. “And I would risk the safety of the universe just to have her with me again. Even if I get stuck there. When Fripp sent you through alone, it broke my heart that I had to stay behind. Because I always wanted to be the one to save her.” There were tears in her eyes now. “Call it a hero complex, call it the dream of a romantic dreamer, I don’t care. I just want to save her.”

“And I understand that,” said Louisa. “I really do. But even if you do open a door, what then? Like you said, Pandoria is a big place, and it’s not like there’s a map or anything.”

“Then I’ll look for her, for as long as it takes,” said Alex, her gaze serious. “I won’t leave her there to rot, to get even sicker.”

“And what if we need you?” asked Louisa. She shook her head. “I hate being more responsible now. Because I want you to save Anne as much as you do but-“

“Then why are you stopping me?” asked Alex. “I could use your help looking for her.” Her eyes shone with determination, but Louisa could only look down at her feet.

“You saw what happened at the Secret Stone Circle,” said Louisa, rubbing her arms. “Dark Core is more active now than ever before, especially since we stole Justin from them and they all saw my flying stunt with Goldie.” Alex growled, clenching her hands into fists at her sides.

“You’re right,” Alex muttered. “Much as I hate to admit it. They always have to ruin and get in the way of everything! I swear, even on our eventual wedding day, they’re going to crash the wedding.”

“Sounds about right,” said Louisa. “But that gives us all the more reason to fight them. And hey, at least now, Fripp is finally focusing on rescuing Anne.”

“Yeah, finally,” said Alex with a roll of her eyes. “Now that Justin’s out of the way.”

“I guess we just have to try to be patient,” said Louisa. 

“Yeah, well, I’m not very good at being patient,” said Alex. “Especially not when my girlfriend’s life is on the line.”

“I know,” said Louisa. “I understand that. And I’m sorry for not telling you about Anne sooner.”

“Yeah, why didn’t you?” asked Alex, frowning. “You went out of your way to avoid me.”

“I guess I was just trying to protect you,” said Louisa, staring at her shoes. “And I was a little… scared of your reaction. Or of what it might be.” She looked up at Alex again. “Sorry.”

“I guess I can be a little over the top when it comes to Anne, huh?” said Alex.

“Just a tad,” said Louisa, nodding. Alex grimaced.

“Sorry,” said Alex. “But thanks for finally telling me. Even if I had to ambush you for that to happen.”

“It wasn’t as bad as I’d feared,” said Louisa. “This conversation, I mean. Anne, on the other hand…”

“Now, I’m almost glad I didn’t go,” said Alex. “Seeing her like that, and hearing her so sad… it might’ve just broken me.”

“It almost broke me, and I don’t know her half as well as you do,” said Louisa. “Of course, it didn’t help that Darko happened to be her prison guard at that particular time.”

“That bastard,” said Alex. “I’ll kick his ass for keeping my girlfriend from me and putting her through that.”

“And I’ll be cheering you on,” said Louisa, smiling. “But in the meantime, we can at least train for future ass-kickings. And, uh… do some research into the Pandorian sickness.”

“Well, I’ve been probing Avalon gently for information about Evergray,” said Alex. Louisa scoffed, imagining what Alex’s ‘gentle’ probing would be like. “Apparently, he’s done quite a bit of research into Pandorian sickness. In a place like Jorvik, it’s not all that uncommon, especially before the druids started warding the gates and created the rune stones for opening portals. And then there’s the accidental exposure from random rifts, of course.”

“Well, hopefully Evergray can give you some more information when he gets here,” said Louisa. “And hopefully, that doesn’t take months or years.”

“I’ll ride up and collect Evergray myself if I have to,” said Alex. “Whatever gets me to Anne faster.”

“I’ll go with you if you do,” said Louisa. “For adventure and information. And for a way to finally bring Anne home.”

“Good to see that you’ve still got my back,” said Alex, smiling. “Even if sometimes it backfires.”

“Man, I’m glad that didn’t ruin our friendship,” said Louisa, giving a relieved grin. 

“Hey, your intentions were good,” said Alex. “Just let me know next time you learn something about Anne, okay? I promise I’ll restrain myself, no matter how bad the news is.” Louisa gave her a hug.

“I will,” said Louisa. “I promise.”


End file.
